Reflection - Scoundrels

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071017.cfm
Genesis 28:10-22
Matthew 9:18-26

As with so many of the Scripture selections we are given to read, the current one tells far less than the whole story. Here we encounter Jacob early in his journey from Beer-Sheba to Haran. But why was he going to Haran? Why was he leaving Beer-Sheba? To get the full impact of the text let's backtrack just a bit. 

Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. Esau was the elder, but only by a few seconds. Nevertheless, the slim margin gave him the privileges that went with being the elder son, privileges known as his birthright. This included, among other things, the inheritance of the core of his father's estate and a special blessing establishing him as head of the family. (For the present I'm going to ignore the character flaws of Esau because the Scripture is concerned specifically with Jacob.) Who was this Jacob? What kind of man was he?

Earlier in the account of the two brothers Jacob had used his brother's personal weakness against him, and had essentially stolen Esau's birthright. So, when the time came for Isaac to confer the privileges of the birthright upon the elder son, Jacob collaborated with his mother in a plan to deceive his elderly, partially blind father. The plan included lying to his father and pretending to be someone he was not; specifically, he pretended to be Esau. The blessing was to follow upon Esau serving his father a stew of wild game that was both caught and cooked by this elder son. Jacob, therefore, serves his father a stew cooked, not by him, but by his mother; a stew whose key ingredient was not wild game, but a goat from the flock. Moreover, he serves it while pretending to be his absent brother, Esau. His mother further assists in the deception by supplying Jacob with goat skin gloves to strengthen the deception that Jacob is not Jacob, but his brother, Esau, who has hairy hands. The ploy is successful. Jacob receives the blessing and the blessing, once given, cannot be retrieved.

The Jacob we meet on the journey to Haran is a thief, a liar and a cheat. He has left his family in Beer-Sheba on the pretext of finding a wife among his mother's family in Haran. In reality, the journey is to escape his brother's wrath. The search for a bride, though real, is an excuse. In Jacob's dream God repeated the promises he had made to Abraham, Jacob's grandfather.

"The land on which you are lying

I will give to you and your descendants.

These shall be as plentiful as the dust of the earth,

and through them you shall spread out east and west, north and south.

In you and your descendants

all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.

Know that I am with you;

I will protect you wherever you go,

and bring you back to this land.

I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you."

When morning came you might think Jacob had had an "awakening." (No pun intended.) 

"Truly, the LORD is in this spot, although I did not know it!"

In solemn wonder he cried out: "How awesome is this shrine!

This is nothing else but an abode of God,

and that is the gateway to heaven!"

Early the next morning Jacob took the stone

that he had put under his head,

set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on top of it."

But the "awakening" has a catch. We find it as we pursue the text a bit further.

If God remains with me,

If He protects me on this journey I am making

If He gives me enough bread to eat 

If He gives me clothing to wear,

If I come back safe to my father's house

THEN the LORD shall be my God.

THEN this stone that I have set up as a memorial stone shall be God's abode.

Jacob reveals himself as, not just a scoundrel, but as an arrogant scoundrel. Among those other fine character attributes of being thief, liar and cheat, we now discover him putting conditions upon God. "If God does what I want, then I'll allow him to be my God." This is the man God chose to bless with the promises originally made to Abraham.

In time, God will re-form the character of Jacob; but that is a later story. For the present, I need to acknowledge that, in spite of my own character flaws, God has chosen to bless me with the promises made by his Son, Jesus. And further, when it comes to surrendering to what the Lord has commanded me to do, I need to allow myself to be re-formed as the Lord would have me be.